A Man Slashed His Wrists Outside Rockefeller Center During A ‘Today’ Show Broadcast

Around 8 a.m. this morning in Rockefeller Center, a 50-something man attempted to harm himself with a knife, in the middle of a crowd assembled to watch Today. Although NBC’s cameras didn’t film the incident, many spectators did, including Twitter’s answer to Matt Lauer, @SirAnduck, who tweeted, “holy shiz someone just pulled a knife at the today show” and uploaded the following video (warning: slightly NSFW).

The Today anchors then moved to the inside part of their sprawling, inside-outside “set,” in front of a screen used to block the major window that usually provides a backdrop onto the plaza. Lauer came back from commercial with a forthright message to viewers.

“So we’re keeping that area clear for law enforcement out there right now and not getting out there to confuse the situation at all,” Lauer said. But then came the extra-happy misdirection, with “What’s Trending” — usually Natalie Morales’s quick post-headlines segment for cat videos — turning into a four-person affair, with Al Roker opining on baseball games and Lauer offering his detailed thoughts on whether it was okay for Vice President Biden to make Strom Thurmond jokes at Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s funeral. (Via)

A 30-minute interview with a guy who heard from another guy who knows this one person who once spent time around Paris Jackson was scrapped at the last second, for sensitivity reasons.

This dude is exhausting. What was his agenda? He definitely had one. Cut your wrists in a crowd where live tv is happening, he #1 had no intention of actually dying #2 had some stupid ass thing he wanted to tell the world about. Asshole.

The video included with this story really gives a tidy portrayal of our country, and I’m not necessarily saying that’s a bad thing. A man attempts suicide/hurts himself for attention. On live television, of course. Tons of people video tape him doing so. In that video we watch the scene from behind some spectators – a nicely framed shot. There are a group of police officers around the man kind of standing around until one of them channels his inner football player and runs full speed at the man and flattens him backwards onto the street. The women who we see from behind in the foreground of the shot do some girly shrieking, gasping, and quick mouth-covering while their men, off camera, yell “YEEEAAAH!!” in reaction to the tackle. Then they all clap. The flag is hanging on the building overlooking the entire scene. As Porugal. The Man says, it’s all ‘So American’.